Am looking to begin trading single contracts at a time with IB on the ES and NQ... is it as simple as looking at this chart (that probably changes at least daily) at IB? e.g. Intraday Initial=1781, Intraday Maintenance=1425 Thanks! Mr. Toad
It is as simple as looking at that chart. IB merely uses the CME overnight margin x .5 for daytrade margins. Margin changes have been infrequent, perhaps several times a year.
intraday margin on globex at IB is good 8:30am to 2:45pm Chicago time. Exchange margin is set by the exchange, but intraday margin varies from broker to broker. 50% is standard, but some allow 50% 24 hrs a day. IB's computers check account equity every minute. If total unused equity in account falls below maintenence, they will close something out. I'm guessing last position put on. Like Pabst said, futures margins are usually very stable and rarely raised or lowered. Usually, at least a couple of days notice is given before any change. The exchanges use a standard volatility formula and contract value to determine margin level. And that's really about as complicated as I can make it! And even then, futures are so simple that you really have to reach far back into the useless information file to come up with anything complicated to talk about. That's why we love them, because it just pure simple trading.